Formula 1: Brilliant Sauber debut for Pascal Wehrlein
FORMULA 1 Pascal Wehrlein made a late but good start to the season for Sauber at the Bahrain GP. However, the road to the points remains arduous for the Formula 1 team from Hinwil. The German was finally able to show whether he was the right choice for the Sauber F1 Team. Or whether replacement driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who in Australia [...]
The German was finally able to show whether he was the right choice for the Sauber F1 Team. Or whether replacement driver Antonio Giovinazzi, who stunned in Australia with P12 and disappointed in China with two accidents, would not be the better alternative after all.
The German, who has now fully recovered from the consequences of an accident at the Race of Champions in January, gave the answer on the foot. In qualifying (13th) and in the race, he left his experienced teammate Marcus Ericsson clearly behind. With a little more luck, i.e. another retirement at the front of the field, even the first world championship point in the still young 2017 racing season would have become a fact.
According to Wehrlein, more than this eleventh place was simply not possible: "It was a tough race because we only made one pit stop. That was the maximum we could achieve today. Of course it's a shame that we weren't one position further ahead at the finish and would have rewarded ourselves with another point."
The last point rank was in the far distance
Wehrlein's Sauber C36-Ferrari was the first car lapped by winner Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. The tenth-placed Frenchman Esteban Ocon in the Force India-Mercedes was the equivalent of around 800 meters behind. By contrast, Daniil Kvyat in twelfth place in the Toro Rosso-Renault was only 581 thousandths behind. So the gap to the rear is at least as thin as it is to the front. Since McLaren-Honda retired with both cars and thus again failed to score points, Sauber remains in ninth place in the constructors' standings.
Marcus Ericsson retired with seven laps to go due to a gearbox failure. The Swede was the only one of the 20 drivers in the field to start the race on soft Pirelli tires. However, the safety car period came at an inopportune time for him, and so the team decided against a pit stop.
"On the re-start I was eighth as other cars overtook me on fresher tires. After changing to supersoft tires, the lap times looked good, but I was too far behind to catch up with the cars in front of me." So even without a gearbox failure, Ericsson would have been left without any chance of scoring points.
